28/01/2008 - 7th after 24 Hours of a sprint behind the clock!

Krohn Racing Post-Race Report 2008 Rolex 24 At Daytona

Krohn Racing has reason to be proud of their results in the 2008 running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona endurance race. The two-car team finished fourth and seventh in the 46th running of the twice-around-the-clock historic enduro by racing smart and steady in the 24-hour race known for its unpredictable results.

The No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley of Tracy W. Krohn, Eric van de Poele and Oliver Gavin also drove a smart and well-paced race. They started from the back of the Prototype grid, in the 25th position, after skipping qualifying to make a minor body repair. Gavin finished the race just 17 laps down from the winning No. 01 Chip Ganassi Lexus Riley of Scott Pruett, Memo Rojas, Dario Franchitti and Juan Pablo Montoya. The previous highest Daytona Krohn racing team finish was fifth in the 2006 Rolex 24 race. Krohn Racing is now in its third full season in the Daytona Prototype class of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series.

David Brown, Team Manager, Krohn Racing:

I think the whole team did a wonderful job. We've achieved a great deal this week, and particularly over the last 24 hours. We changed course two weeks before the race. We did an enormous amount of work to get here and the cars were quick, the team worked very well together, we had very few issues and I think we put together a decent championship start for the year.

Eric van de Poele, driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley:

The team did a great job this weekend. We had our challenges certainly -- with the rain and some problems in the night -- but everyone worked hard and overcame them. The finishing positions, fourth and seventh, show a fantastic start of the season for Krohn Racing. A 24-hour race is always difficult because you have to be prepared for anything. Everyone worked together and solved whatever problems we had to the best ability.

For Krohn Racing it's brilliant. They really were on the back foot this weekend. One car didn't even make qualifying and the other was in 15th place but the guys did such a great job on the race strategy. We had problems; it wasn't like it was a clean run  damage, windscreen, wiper motors not working when there was a fair bit of rain out there, they all dealt with it really well. The team did a mega job.

Oliver Gavin, driver, No. 75 Krohn Racing Pontiac Riley:

This result is very rewarding, especially for the team who had a very difficult test earlier in the month. We had to switch back to the Riley which they ran last year, which is a very good car, but it still meant there was a lot for Eric and I to find out from the car and we had to do that in the race as there was no time in the days leading up to it. It's been a real epic battle for everyone in the team. It sort of ran reasonably smoothly in the sense we didn't have any big problems, but we had lots of little things - bodywork damage, wipers not working, windshield steaming up, the rain, the tires not being particularly good first out of the pits, when you had to be really, really careful.

I was very proud of the team as they had a lot thrown at them in the last 24 hours and they found a solution for everything, whether it was the gearshift problem we had, to the windscreen to the bodywork. They worked out the problem and got over the hurdle. They are an excellent team.

The next Grand-Am race will be the Grand Prix of Miami on March 28-29 at Homestead-Miami Speedway, where Krohn Racing plans to debut its new Proto-Auto Lola Pontiacs. For more information, please see www.grand-am.com and www.krohnracing.net.